1. Field of the Invention
The present invention broadly relates to a thermal transfer device, and, more particularly, to a thermal transfer device in which a print content to be printed onto a disk-shaped member is temporarily printed onto a transfer sheet, and then the print content of the transfer sheet is thermally transferred onto the disk-shaped member.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in order to print a character, a figure, a pattern, or the like onto an optical recording medium such as a compact disk (CD-R) to which data can be written only once, an inkjet printer has been commonly used that is capable of printing a print content onto, for example, a label or the like of the optical recording medium without contacting the label.
The inkjet printer, which prints without contacting the label or the like of an optical recording medium, does not scratch the optical recording medium during printing, thus preventing it from affecting the optical recording medium in any way. However, the inkjet printer may cause ink smearing during printing, so that the print on the label or the like of an optical recording medium is smeared, preventing high quality printing from being performed.
Conventionally, such a problem has been overcome by using a thermal printer that prints onto, for example, a label of an optical recording medium, while the print head is in contact with the label. This provides a clean print on the label, thereby allowing good quality printing.
When a thermal printer is used to print a character, figure, pattern, or the like onto the label of an optical recording medium, the thermal head is kept in contact with the label. Therefore, the printing surface of the label of an optical recording medium should not be tilted with respect to the thermal head. When printing is performed with the printing surface tilted, good quality printing cannot be performed.
When such a known printing means as a thermal printer is used to print a character, a figure, a pattern or the like onto the label of an optical recording medium, any tilt of the printing surface of the label cannot be corrected since a suitable means for correcting the tilt of the printing surface has not yet been developed thus far. Therefore, when printing is performed with the printing surface of the label or the like of an optical recording medium tilted with respect to the thermal head, good quality printing cannot be performed.